Independent since 2002 Issue No. 1102 Week of November 7, 2026 Get the free email dispatch →

Guest Commentator

Laila Lalami

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator Laila Lalami, the author of Secret Son , is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. Click here to contact Ms. Lalami.

1 piece

Guest Commentary

The Meaning of the Minaret Ban

By Laila Lalami Guest Commentator

This commentary originally appeared in The Nation. When I was five years old, my parents enrolled me in Sainte Marguerite-Marie, a French grade school in a suburb of Rabat, in Morocco. The school was run by a group of Franciscan nuns who had arrived in the country during the colonial period but had stayed behind…

This commentary originally appeared in The Nation. When I was five years old, my parents enrolled me in Sainte Marguerite-Marie, a French grade school in a…

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